Bret Easton Ellis' controversial 1991 novel revolves around Patrick Bateman, a Manhattan executive with a secret life as a serial killer, and spawned a 2000 feature film adaptation starring Christian Bale. The 1980s-set book and movie depicted Bateman seemingly relishing in his upscale lifestyle and like-minded friends, whom he secretly despised. The feature film was written by Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner, with the former directing. The Lionsgate-produced film grossed $34 million worldwide.

In the update, Bateman -- now in his mid-50s but as outrageous and lethal as ever -- takes on a protege, in a sadistic social experiment, who will become every bit his equal, creating the next generation American Psycho.

Lionsgate's former president of motion picture production Shearmur (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) will executive produce alongside Ed Pressman and Danish writer Jaworski (Those Who Kill). For his part, Jaworski also has an adaptation of his Danish series Those Who Kill set up at A&E. The 10-episode drama stars Chloe Sevigny as a detective who works to hunt down serial killers. Stephen Meinen was active in developing the project for Allison Shearmur Productions. Lionsgate and FX Productions will produce.

The American Psycho update comes as serial killers continue to be big business on both cable and broadcast television. Showtime's Dexter will end its run this summer, while NBC renewed Hannibal for a second season, and Fox's The Following earned a sophomore season. In addition to Those Who Kill, A&E has the upcoming second season of Psycho prequel Bates Motel coming in 2014.

For FX, should the project go to series, it would join anthology entry American Horror Story, The Americans and The Bridge, among others, at the network. At Lionsgate, it marks the studio's latest small-screen entry, together with Netflix's Orange Is the New Black, AMC's Mad Men, ABC's Nashville, Showtime's Nurse Jackie and FX's 90/10 comedy Anger Management.